The ORCA Hub: Offshore robotics for certification of assets
ORCA Hub is a £36M programme aimed at addressing the offshore energy industry vision for a completely autonomous offshore energy field. The Hub brings together leading experts from five UK universities with over thirty industry partners, led by the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics in collaboration with Imperial College, Oxford and Liverpool Universities. The Hub’s primary goal is to use robotic systems and Artificial Intelligence to revolutionise Asset Integrity Management for the offshore energy sector, in order to enable cheaper, safer and more efficient production. The ORCA Hub will research, develop and deploy remote robotic solutions that will operate safely and efficiently within the complex cluttered marine, topside (on asset) and airborne environments of existing and future offshore energy assets. They will assist and co-operate with remote operational teams, in both autonomous and semi-autonomous modes, in order to assure and certify offshore assets and their own operations and maintenance. Driven by the needs of industry, the Hub will focus its research around four key work areas: (1) Mapping, Surveying and Inspection of complex dynamic structures; (2) Planning and Execution of efficient, localisable and coordinated motion of heterogeneous robotic teams; (3) Intelligent Human-Robot Interaction to provide intuitive communication of world view, system actions and re-planning, between robot teams and operators, to develop efficient operation and (4) Robot and Asset Self-Certification to guarantee safe operation particularly where self-learning AI technology is employed, to predict and diagnose faults, and optimise operational use over remaining lifetime. The Talk will present the overall hub, its objectives and initial achievements in each research strand. It will also explain how academics and industry can be involved in the current and future research.